The present invention is related to a microparticle/aerosol-collecting device, and more particularly to a rotational microparticle/aerosol-collecting device mounted in an office machine for collecting ink aerosols suspended in the air.
A conventional printer includes a printing head positioned above a paper-feeding path by a set height. The printing head is reciprocally movable in a direction normal to the paper-feeding path, whereby the printing head is able to jet ink onto a paper and print the paper with figures or characters.
In general, the printing head includes multiple jet nozzles for jetting ink onto a paper. In the jetting operation, some ink drops often stagnate around the jet nozzles to eventually form solid sediments. The sediments will partially clog the jet nozzles to change the jet direction. This will affect the printing quality. Moreover, in printing operation, some ink aerosols are spread and suspended in the air. These ink aerosols will eventually fall onto unexpected portions of the printer, for example, the transmission members of the printer. In this case, the ink will be transfer printed onto the paper. In some cases, the ink aerosols will fall and collectively attach to the encoding sensor. This will affect the judgment of the jet carrier control system to cause misoperation of the printer.
Various types of cleaning devices have been developed for solving the problem of stagnation of ink drops around the jet nozzles. For example, Japanese Patent Nos. JP2003-63021, JP2-113949 and JP5-92576 respectively disclose rotational brush and wiper mechanisms. The brush and wiper mechanisms serve to pass through a lower side of the jet nozzles and once or twice back and forth wipe up the jet nozzles from the ink drops.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,637,856 B2 discloses a cleaning device including a rotatable cleaning roller arranged at lower end of the jet nozzle for wiping off ink drops or solid ink from the periphery of the jet nozzle. Chinese Patent No. 1778559A discloses a jet printer equipped with a cleaning unit. The cleaning unit includes a collecting container positioned under the jet nozzle for sealing the jet nozzle. The container is drivable by a transmission mechanism to reciprocally move under the jet nozzle. The container is connected to a sucking unit via a conduit, whereby the sucking unit is able to suck off the ink drops from the periphery of the jet nozzle.
Some other cleaning devices employ static generators for absorbing powders and dusts from a paper delivered within a paper-feeding path of an office machine. For example, Taiwanese Patent No. 94109929 (U.S. Patent No. 2006/0222426 A1) discloses a typical device employing a rotary member and silk material for generating static by means of friction to absorb powders and dusts from a paper passing through a paper-feeding path. However, such dust-collecting device still has some shortcomings. For example, the device can only absorb powders and dusts from one face of the paper, while failing to absorb the powders and dusts attaching to the other face of the paper. Furthermore, all the above devices cannot collect or clean off the ink aerosols or microparticles suspended in the air.
It is therefore tried by the applicant to provide a microparticle/aerosol-collecting device mountable in an office machine and capable of effectively collecting and cleaning off microparticles or ink aerosols suspended in the air.